The 2012 Professor Paddle Ball is a community gathering for all paddlers and craft held on the Wenatchee River.

This years event is on June 9,10th at the same location in years past (Phils riverfront property). We'll have prizes and schwag for all events on both days, a private riverside camp for everyone to camp at, and Kegs for the party both fri & sat night.

Space should not be a problem but showing up early is not a bad idea either so you can pick out a good camp spot.

You pay at the camp site, there will most likely be a registration booth. I am not doing the event this year but that has been what normally goes down. Shirts, Schwag, Raffle, Camping, and Beer is all sold at the Registration area.

Any chance of doing the Icicle Race on Sunday? It would....1. Allow me to participate as I will be gone Saturday and2. Give everyone a chance to get some laps on the race course Saturday to nail the lines down.3. And have a race each day! Rather than two on the same day.

The band is called Baby Brother and they are local musicians from Seattle. It'll be a great show!

"Baby Brother gets together when there is a party in need! Hired guns from Seattle and Tacoma, we are made up of players who like to play hard and play good time rock and roll, Honky Tonk and anything on the fringe. Don't be alarmed if you feel like you have to start dancing and don't hold back, Baby Brother is a loosey, goosey good time."

I agree with Darren. I believe that there is a Wenatchee Riverfest downriver race on saturday as well. So, that makes, like, 3 races all on saturday. I gotta say I'm not stoked on the scheduling. I mean, I'm not saying that to be a dick, but I think it would be cool if some of the events were planned to dove tail a little better.

If I gotta choose between three different races, and only get to do one it will be kind of a bummer

That's my input. I bet PP can be more flexible than the organizers of Riverfest, and honestly, it is a tragedy that the two events are so determined to remain seperaye entities.

Anyone see the movie Ran by Akiro Kurosawa? The emporer Hidetora gives his kingdom to his three sons:
WKC, PP, and River Booty.

Early in the film he tries to instill the virtue of unity by holding out a bundle of three arrows. Individually each arrow could be broken easily, but together, the three arrows are strong.

Despite this, one of the sons belligerantly rebels and wants to do his own thing. Maybe that's River Booty (no offense River Booty- you know I luv ya, just stick w/ the metaphor here...)
WKC knows about the PP ball. Maybe they are the old guard, and maybe they are a little too afraid of The Ramp and assorted Fireball that emits from a younger culture.
And PP: most of yall are relatively new kids on the block. Johnny Come Latelies, if you will. Hell, some of you still don't know your asses from a hole in the river. But that's ok. We are all here to have fun, learn, and grow.

Personally, I'm gonna have fun no matter what. Because I know that on one hand, if I skirt up a wildwater boat, those WKC paddlers in wildwater boats are likely to give me a sound ass kickin, cuz I can barely keep that thing from wobbling all the way to Casmere. If I jump on Icicle, I can bet that any number of contemporary top paddlers will similarly keep me honest. The clock doesn't lie.

Freestyle? Damn I ain't even gonna step to that. That is the realm of fresh ideas and refined newschool whitewater mojo. This dog don't have the motivation to learn them tricks. The Ramp, I guess, ain't happening this year. Personally, that sh*ts too Evil Kineavel for me, although after three or so years I have yet to see anyone get seriously hurt aside from a nose bleed generated by sliding face first down the thing...

I guess the way I see it is that the event can be way bigger and better if combined, or at the very least dove tailed as its seperate components. I see a huge rift between the old school and new school and it kinda bums me out.

Kinda.

Just some thoughts. Regardless of what goes down when, all tributaries lead to the Wenatchee this time of year, and lots of river peeps gonna have lots of fun.

jP- freakin' WELL SAID amigo. I'm a noob with friends in both camps jest trying to figure out how to have fun, paddle and push the rock up hill. Hope I get to somehow make sense of it all....You will know me as I will be the old guy trying to hit his roll ;-)

Hope some of those awesome t-shirts are still available Sat,. morn. when I pull in.

Ok-- Looks like River Bootay has joined forces w/ the Wenatchee Riverfest, which mostly occurs on Friday eve and Saturday. It's good that River Booty is bolstering the Raft presence at an event that has predominantly been kayak-centric. This needs to occur.
I just copied and pasted the following info from WKC's Wenatchee Riverfest page for everyone's convienience:

So that's a whole lot of racin goin on during saturday. Throw in a mass start race in the middle of that...??! I mean, I could go either way. Part of me would love to see the potential chaos that ensures when you all know damn well most of these events will not start on time. Oh! The madness when all sorts of mass start kayaks mingle w/ rafts and Sups!!! GLEE! All those custies on the afternoon commercial raft trips too, gonna be sayin "WTF?!" THIS IS GONNA BE A BLAST!!!

The other (more mature and rarely expressed) part of me would love to see all of this dovetail a little better. And given that WKC, LMS, and River Booty all have scheduled events, PP is probably in the best position to be flexible and plan around them. Now, that's only a suggestion. At the very least, on a diplomatic and cooperative level, it may be the courteous thing to do.

I am not personally invested in either outcome, just pointing out some basic cause & effect stuff. And also pointing out that PP should not place itself at odds with these other organizations. If you guys feel I'm making a mountain out of a molehill that's cool. Just bringing it up as a concern. It'll be a fun weekend for all individuals involved no matter what, but it would be cool to see our community united on a bigger scale, rather than divided. And that's all I have to say on the matter. I am a free agent. I will be in several different kayaks throughout the weekend, making game time decisions throughout.

jP, I have to give you major props for saying what you have about the riff between the communities. I completely agree, and I too, frequently experience the struggles of feeling "in the middle". Bottom line though is to remember to treat everyone with the same respect you ask, and keep the banjos playing!!

I may not have been around last year to see all the shenanigans, but I heard about it all the way on the OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD, and I won't be missing it this year!!

Thank you to all who have put so much effort and time into organizing these events!! WIthout you, we wouldn't have schedules to talk about.

Looking forward to another fantastic weekend in Wenatchee, with great people, all around!

I am heading over Friday around noonish or so and am taking the easy fast way via I-90 to Blewit pass way. I was going to ride over, but the rain is putting a stop to that.

So, I have an empty seat so far. Room for one boat and one person. No one has claimed a spot yet, I figured my roommate would want a ride, but I havnt heard from him in two weeks...so, if you want to carpool...

I am planning on coming home on Sunday morning and live in the Renton area.

SO can we unofficially plan on having the creek race on Sunday? I think we should do what we can to include Darren considering he's been the champion the last three years running (although if Andrew wasn't gonna make it I'd be pushing for Saturday :)

Well, whatever goes down, lots of peeps will be on the river this coming weekend doing what they love. Regardless of how events are or aren't scheduled, seperately, concurrently, whatever, there's gonna be a huge bonfire at Phil's and to me that has always been the heart n soul of the Professor Paddle Ball. All the races and prizes and stuff are cool too, but they are just icing on the cake. And maybe a good cake needs icing, but that doesn't sound like it'll be a problem this weekend. No matter what we are all gonna have a good time.

Slick, I'm not sure how much extra room I'll have but I'll see if I can swing by and pick up some fire wood.

What was the status on wood again? Someone remind me. I remember advocating a BYOW policy but I think that got vetoed. Seemed easy enough that if every car brought two bundles of wood we'd be off to a decent start anyway. Just sayin.

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